Railway-track



(No Model.)

O. W. PARKS.

RAILWAY TRACK.

N0. 479,836. Patented Aug. 2, 1892 avmgemtoi C, I o/wzw WeZf/mFa/r/w 13W attorney UNITED STATES PATENT CHARLES WELLMAN PARKS, OF TROY, NEWYORK.

RAI LWAY-T RAC K.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 479,836, dated August2, 1892.

Application filed May 14, 1891. Serial No. 392,654- (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES WELLMAN PARKS, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at- Troy, in the county of Rensselaer, State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Tracks, of which the following is a specification, reference being hadtherein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to railway -,tracks having, besides the two railsusually employed for the wheels carrying the weight of the car, acentral rail to be clutched by the motive power or a central way for thepassage of the grip-lever or device of cable cars or for the passage ofthe trolleyor brushlever operating in electric conduits or ways; and theobjects of my improvement are to prevent excessive friction or strainagainst one side of the central rail by the clutchingwheels or unduefriction of the grip-lever against one side of the groove made for itspassage while the car is traveling upon a curved trackas, for example,in turning the corners of streets. I attain these objects by theconstruction illustrated in the accompanying drawing, which representsin diagram form a double railroad-track with four cartrucks in diagramform placed thereon.

In said drawing, A represents the inner track, and A the outer track.The rail a of the track A presents a curve having a radius of aboutthirty feet, while the rail or of the track A presents a curve havingaradius of about forty feet.

R represents a radius-line passing through the points of junction of thestraight rails a with the curved rails or a.

B represents car-trucks in diagram form, the points of contact of onepair of wheels with the rails being represented at b I), while thepoints of contact of the second pair with the rails is represented at bb The diagonal lines 17 b are placed in' the drawing to indicate attheir junction the central point 0 of the truck, and is the locationpreferred for the grip-lever in cable-cars or the clutch-wheels inthree-rail tracks, and although the drawing is on a small scale it isquite apparent that the central point 0 of the car is nearer the rail athan to the rail a when the car is wholly upon the curved portion of thetrack, as shown at 2, the distance that it is nearer being about twoinches for tracks having the radii above stated,

with trucks having their front wheels about six feet in front of therear wheels. If the front wheels of the truck are more than six feetfrom the rear wheels, thecentral rail or groove 0 should be two and ahalf or three inches nearer to the rail or and remain parallel theretothe whole length of the curve to the points I) b occupied by the frontwheels of the trucks B entering upon the track. Said trucks B are shownhalf-way upon the straight track and half-way upon the curved track, andwhile the central rail C is two inches nearer the rail 0, on the line bb said central rail is equidistant of the straight rails a on the line b19 and between the linesl) b and b b the central rail converges towardthe inner curved rail a, said convergence of the rail 0 assuming a curve(probably parabolic) between the points of meeting of the lines I) b andb b with the rail 0.

Having now fully described my invention, I claim 1. In combination witha straight threerail or three-way track having the central wayequidistant from each side Way, and a curved track having itsintermediate way nearer to the inner 'rail of the curve by approxmatelythe product of the radius of curvature and the versed sine of the angleformed by two radii-of the curve, one such radius passing through anaxle of the car'upon the curve and the other passing midway between theaxles of said car, as set forth.

2. In combination with a straight threerail or three-way'track havingthe central way equidistant from each side way a curved track having itsintermediate way nearer to the inner rail of the curve by approximatelythe versed sine of the angle formed by two radii of the curve, one suchradius passing through an axle of the car upon the curve and the otherpassing midway between the axles of said car, and an intermediate wayhaving a curve in one direction gradually approaching the center way ofthe straight track and in the other direction the off center way of thecurved track, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES WELLMAN' PARKS.

WVitnesses:

E. E. MASSON, C. O. SCHILLER.

